Tag Archives: taxation

"Fresh off their failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Congressional Republicans are aglow with the hope of passing sweeping tax cuts. It’s as if Trump has cast himself as the villain in a cheap horror film. In this B movie, he flails around with an axe, trying to hack unsuspecting victims in their sleep. First the GOP turned on Medicaid and Medicare, seeking to push millions of children and the poor off health coverage. Now, after being thwarted from that goal by massive public pressure, they hope to carve out rich rewards for their billionaire friends and benefactors. Their aim is poor, and thus far they’ve failed to land a blow. But don’t be fooled: an axe can be deadly." (09/28/17)

"President Trump and congressional Republicans rolled out a sweeping tax overhaul proposal on Wednesday that won immediate praise from conservatives, uniting a party that had been divided over how to repeal ObamaCare. Business groups and the far-right House Freedom Caucus both backed the GOP blueprint to slash business taxes and trim the number of individual tax rates as Republicans looked to quickly move on from another failure to repeal the health care law. Trump and his congressional allies are salivating for a major legislative win after a year filled with losses and disappointments, most of them related to a failed effort to repeal and replace ObamaCare. Their new hope is tax reform, which on the surface at least offers plenty for Republicans to agree upon." (09/27/17)

"As you may remember from 2008, there was a — shall we say — robust debate among economists over how much, if at all, you can directly stimulate the economy through spending increases and tax cuts. Yet, almost everyone agrees that you can stimulate the economy indirectly through tax cuts, through what are called supply-side effects. Most modelers, however, say that unless taxes are already sky-high, these supply-side effects are likely to be small and take a long time to play out. This is not good, if you’re trying to argue that $1 trillion in corporate tax cuts will all be made up for by the booming economy they create. There may be a way out though, if you are willing to incorporate those direct, otherwise known as demand-side, effects." (09/25/17)

"With tweets, speeches and meetings, President Trump is urging Congress to cut taxes by the end of the year. The president argues that our high business taxes are driving investment abroad and hurting U.S. workers. Most members of Congress agree that we need to reduce our 35% federal corporate tax rate, which is one of the highest in the world. The disagreement comes when Trump says he wants 'the biggest tax cut … in the history of our country,' as he tweeted the other day. He seems to be promising to vastly slash Uncle Sam’s grab from our wallets. That would be great if Trump and Congress matched the tax cuts with spending cuts. But without the latter, deficits would rise and simply impose higher taxes on people down the road. … Alas, Republicans cannot seem to cut spending, and they have not yet agreed on which tax breaks to repeal. Without such deficit offsets, they should scale back their tax package to just the most pro-growth elements, particularly a corporate tax rate cut." (09/17/17)

"Here's an interesting idea from some of our friends on the Continent. Everyone is actually obeying the law, the tax system is operating exactly as it was and is intended to do. Corporate taxes are indeed taxed where economic value is being added, yea even among the tech giants. Thus and therefore the law must be changed: 'Paris and Berlin are mounting a joint offensive to tax internet giants such as Google and Amazon based on revenues generated in EU countries, a change that would wreak havoc with many technology groups’ business models in Europe.'" (09/12/17)

"President Trump has pushed for slashing the corporate tax rate to as low as 15% from a top rate of 35%, but Congress is reportedly looking to split the difference. Negotiations between the White House and Congress appear to be focusing on a rate closer to 23%, according to the Washington Post. Or perhaps a bit higher. Asked if a 15% goal was feasible, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said at a hedge-fund conference on Tuesday 'I don’t know if we will be able to achieve that.'" (09/12/17)

"The tax treatment of cryptocurrencies has been a persnickety affair. Long gone are the days when bitcoin users mistakenly believed that their experiment in monetary innovation would be free from the grabbing hands of the state. But cryptocurrencies' unique properties and uses posed a dilemma for tax authorities seeking to outline a reasonable path for taxation of technologies like bitcoin. Thankfully, a new bill could rectify many of the early mistakes made with the tax treatment of cryptocurrencies." [editor's note: Cryptocurrencies SHOULDN'T be taxed. Neither should anything else – TLK]

"The California Supreme Court this week issued a stunning blow to California’s taxpayers with a convoluted ruling that lets local governments collude with public-employee unions to raise certain taxes without a supermajority vote. Californians already must deal with a state government that views tax hikes as the solution to every problem. They will soon see the same approach dominate at the municipal level, as well. If conservative groups don’t respond with an initiative to overturn the ruling, this could be the beginning of the end of longstanding property-tax protections first enacted with 1978’s tax-limiting Proposition 13 and 1996’s Proposition 218. Ironically, two of the court’s most liberal members — both appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown, and one a former Obama administration official — were the only justices to see the dangerous ramifications here." (08/31/17)

"In an earlier post I argued for expanding tax-deferred retirement accounts because they eliminate the double tax on saving that exists under the current tax system. Here is the basic idea. People earn income and pay income tax on that income. If they save it and then earn interest (or dividends, or capital gains, etc.), they will be charged income tax on income that has already been taxed, amounting to a double tax." (08/22/17)

"You can use bitcoin. But you can't hide from the taxman. At least, that's the hope of the Internal Revenue Service, which has purchased specialist software to track those using bitcoin, according to a contract obtained by The Daily Beast. The document highlights how law enforcement isn't only concerned with criminals accumulating bitcoin from selling drugs or hacking targets, but also those who use the currency to hide wealth or avoid paying taxes. … The contractor in this case is Chainalysis, a startup offering its 'Reactor' tool to visualize, track, and analyze bitcoin transactions. Chainalysis'[s] users include law enforcement agencies, banks, and regulatory entities. The software can follow bitcoin as it moves from one wallet to another, and eventually to an exchange where the bitcoin user will likely cash out into dollars or another currency. This is the point law enforcement could issue a subpoena to the exchange and figure out who is really behind the bitcoin." (08/22/17)

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